Lord knows, we don’t always agree with Natchez Mayor Butch Brown, but he was dead on the money Tuesday when he said he planned to vigorously discuss all aspects of the swimming pool plan the city tentatively agreed to support.

Clearly the pool matter had been discussed privately behind closed doors with some or all of the aldermen ahead of Tuesday’s vote. We wish aldermen would simply abstain from such backroom lobbying and discuss public matters openly and honestly.

Many questions remain unanswered in the deal.

First, who will technically hold ownership and thus legal liability over the pool?

When children get unruly and someone gets hurt, does the City of Natchez get sued, or does Adams County, the Natchez-Adams Recreation Commission, the casino that provided funding or a combination of all four?

How do other municipalities handle the management of public swimming pools, if they have public pools at all?

When Duncan Park’s public pool closed several years ago, one of the unspoken problems allegedly was that irresponsible parents would drop off children who then had to be “parented” by the city staff on hand.

The question city leaders need to ask in this regard is: Have local parents become, on average, more responsible since the 1990s?

We think not, and we hope a frank discussion of past problems and future opportunities is part of the mayor’s vow to discuss all aspects of the issue before what appears to be a half-baked plan is enacted on the whims of a few.